Who was the greatest player ever in Namibian football?

There is a case for and against the recognition of a greatest ever player in the history of football in Namibia. As someone with interest and as an author on the history of the game, there is a challenge for most, even for all Namibians to make contributions to this debate. I feel it is in national interest for this discussion to come into the open.

There are those who are carrying out this activity clandestinely but has not revealed their identity as of now and we don’t the way people research their answer to this question. There is often no information about the criteria used, hence my resolve to touch on this matter. Let me stress from the outset that “crowning a player” as the greatest ever player in the history of football in Namibia is not a bad idea by itself, but there is a need to contextualize it for all involved to have a basis for arriving at such a decision: Why?

In an apartheid ruled society like ours used to be, football as the most popular game in this country was highly localized and regionalized by the system. That inadvertently meant that each language group in such a set up had their own best players, heroes and heroines along language barriers.

In a localized set up, it also meant, for example, that teams from the old locations all over the then South West Africa in all corners of the country, almost always and exclusive played the game against the same opposition, weekend in and weekend out. What this meant is that a vast majority of people were not aware of the nature of the game and about the top players in various locations leading up to the period of the 1960s.

Thus, the concentration was on localized stars because there were no universal leagues. But there is no denying that a number of top soccer players emerged during the period before the independence of Namibia. As modern houses were built and people were bulldozed into the new locations by the powers that be and as mode of traveling improved, there were more movement between different towns and villages and black people started to organize soccer tournaments across the country.

The most important tournament took place in Tsumeb when Chippa Moloi was invited by the late Herbert Conradie (amongst others) to train Etosha Lions FC During this period (Easter Weekend of 1969), two things happened: Chippa ended up renaming Etosha Lions as Chief Santos, and he fell madly in love with Pele Blaschke’s game!

He immediately made arrangements for Blaschke to join his club, Orlando Pirates FC in South Africa. When Kaizer Motaung became aware of this talent in the then SWA, His Kaizer Eleven toured the country in the second half of 1969, grabbed Blaschke and Lemmy ‘special’ /Narib to play in Johannesburg. During this period, it is said that Hasso Ahrens was the prodigal son of football in the white society.

Surely for them, during this period, he would possibly be considered the best of the best! While Blaschke and Lemmy ‘Special’ /Narib emerged as first black professionals with Kaizer Chiefs in South Africa, Hasso Ahrens was playing for Hellenic FC, also in South Africa, more or less during the same period.

Still, many more people in the various other parts of the country such as Caprivi, Ovamboland, Kavango, the Deep South and the East of the country, was not aware, to a large extent, of all these sporting heroes of those years. They were confined to their own areas and were playing their own game.

For example, it is said that Boston Likando (Caprivi) has played professional football in Zambia and was regarded by many as the greatest player to have emerged from that part of the country. However, he was hardly known in the other parts of the country!

The question that comes to mind is whether these players or one of them, notably Pele Blaschke who was exported by Kaizer to North America together with the late Ace Ntsoelengu, can be regarded as the greatest player/s in the history of the game in Namibia?

While I am unable to provide a specific answer (owing to my perceived prejudice and as a matter of integrity that calls for a national consensus), it is worth noting that there were indeed other very good players at the time such as Tommy Uushona, Takosta Gabes Mupupa, Warrick Goreseb (Zimmer) and others.

These were followed by a younger generation of star footballers such as Albert Louw, Pius Eigobab (K. Chiefs); Oscar Mengo (K. Chiefs); Kaputji Kuhanga (A. Wanders) Doc Hardly, Alu Hummel; Linton Aseb (All Orlando Pirates FC, South Africa) , Norris !Goraseb, Storm !Gom Khaiseb; Dalhe Stephanus, Brown Akwenye, Mohammed Ouseb, Collin Benjamin, Eliphas Shivute and many, many others.

Now, owing to me being unable to answer the question as to who the greatest player could be in the history of Namibia, let me rather try to use the “Pele” (Brazil) vs “Maradona” (Argentina) criteria to try to reflect on this question. Both of them are regarded as the best of the best in the world. Pele was an “inventor” at World Football level.

Firstly, he is the first player to have introduced the “overhead kick” in world football. In the case of Namibia, only Pius Eigowab and perhaps Isak ‘Whoops’ Gariseb could intimidate him consistently. Secondly, Pele was the first player to introduce the technique of heading the ball downwards for scoring.

In our case, Brown Akwenye and Benzil Nawatiseb were the past masters in doing it. Thirdly, Pele would unleash powerful shots without fail, something Kaputji, Blaschke, Eigowab, Kaputji and Lemmy / Narib would do continuously, not to forget Tommy Uushona, Takosta and the /Gaseb & Damaseb brothers and many others not mentioned here.

In this case, truly there were many, many sharp shooters. Fourthly, Pele was an attacking football genius when it came to the attacking zone of the game in terms of quick thinking, finishing, releasing the ball in time and general team motivation. Here, Albert Louw, Oscar Mengo, Pele Blascke, Storm !Gom-Khaiseb, Dalhle Stephanes were masters. Fifthly, Pele scored 1,000 goals during his career.

No-one from this part of the world comes close but Blaschke, Lemmy, Tommy and Eigowab, Kuputji, Doc Hardly, Gerros Witbeen and Dawid Snewe were perennial goal scores during their prime time! Sixthly, Pele is the first player to have attempted to score a goal from just behind the center line. Since then many others tried successfully such as Sandro de Gouveia, the late Josef ‘Mombs’ Eiseb actually scored goals through the same technique, and the late Doc Hardly repeatedly tried this feat.

Last but not least, Pele made the No. 10 jersey world famous, something that is cast in stone! Maradona was an inspirational dribbler, provider and deadly finisher second to none! Norbertus !Goraseb (except for being a out and out left-winger), could imitate him with both Lucky Bostander and Hannes Louw being excellent ball passers. But Maradona’s style was in a vastly different class altogether! Both Pele and Maradona played football in national leagues, internationally and at World Cup level, while we could only dream and speculate about what might have been for Namibian legends if given the same opportunity.

A curious observer will see that most of the players mentioned in this opinion piece took place during the 1970’s period. Again, league football was introduced for Windhoek, Katutura, the Coastal and Northern part (Otjiwarongo and Tsumeb mostly) towards the end of the 1970’s and again it was not universal.

A fair case is for those players who played professional football in South Africa against top opposition and who excelled continuously with Pele Blaschke playing consistently for Chiefs. However, during this period, most people did not see Blaschke in action, making arriving at a fair judgement difficult in the same fashion that most people throughout the country did not see many phenomenal players such as Boston Likando, Albert Louw, Oscar Mengo, Lemmy /Narib, Dahle Stephanus and others at their best! In the same vein, it is equally difficult to make a case for white footballers (only ‘experts’ can talk on behalf of their community with an air of fair play).

A special case exists for players like Mister Vyff and Frans Ochurub, who hailed from Karasburg and Tsumeb respectively. Their skills, ball artistry, shooting and general behavior on the field of play is comparable to those of Zinadine Zidane of France, a player of African descent and nominated twice as “world player of the year”, but again, neither of the two (Mister Vyff and Frans Ochurub) played at world football level and once again we can only dream and speculate about what might have been.

Looking at the above picture and realizing how fragmented our society used to be, that people in the then SWA had their own heroes and greatest players along the lines of different language groups, localized areas, played all the time against the same opposition, that not a single player can completely match the yardstick of Pele or Maradona. In my humble view, it is next to impossible to come with a criteria and scenario which will convince most people of a single best choice! But, a huge challenge, I have to admit!

So far, only a handful of players earned international acclaim such as Pele Blaschke (Namibia’s first international player in the USA and first professional black player with Lemmy /Narib); Hasso Ahrens with Hellenic in South Africa, Dahle and /Gaseb who earned Springbok colours; Razondjara Tjikuzu and Collin Benjamin in Germany at the very top level; Elifas Shivute and Quinton Jacobs in Scotland; Mohammed Ouseb (one time Player of the Year in RSA) and Ronnie Kanalelo, our first professional goalkeeper.